Telling Tales With Technology

Stephen Burroughs spoke of the role of the Crafts Council in funding and supporting the many approaches to crafts, and in particular the need to celebrate making. Questions were raised regarding the ways in which people learn through making and direct experience; how the crafts are valued in society, and what is lost to the individual and to society as a whole when children are denied the direct experience of making. The Crafts Council aims to promote an awareness of craft in all educational sectors from 'hands on' experiences with makers in schools, to support for degree level courses in specialist crafts, critical writing and historical research in higher education.

The main focus of his talk was to present Photostore based on the Crafts Council's index of designer/makers. This system allows information to be accessed by maker's name or by object. Selecting, by clicking on an image, for example, will bring up a matrix of related images any one of which can be enlarged or can lead into a display of the maker's biographical details. These can be printed out along with colour pictures. At present Photostore is only available through the Crafts Council Gallery in Islington but there are plans to put it into the Victoria and Albert Museum and if funding is available make it more widely accessible. Funding was an issue touched on by a number of speakers but the Crafts Council was hopeful that new Lottery guidelines might be helpful for such educational publishing.